All the stars have hung their carnival chains of light for me. (Adrienne Rich)

Yes, they have. And today, my vision is still a little blurry. I spent last evening taking Alexandra Sokoloff's advice, casting the actors of my choice to play the characters in my novel-to-be. Alexandra says "I’ve talked before about writing a character for a specific actor. And as authors, we can use this technique even more easily than screenwriters can - because we don’t have to go out and get the actor to play the part (and then compromise later with the ninth choice on our wish list)."

Wow. It was like Christmas morning. You mean I can have Liam Neeson? Meryl Streep? Nicole Kidman? And omigod, Robert Downey Jr.? He's perfect!

Now I actually have faces and voices to go with my hitherto amorphous characters. It is just so cool. The best part is, I'm not limited by the age of the actors at this moment - I could have a young Sean Connery, if I liked - though I won't, because I think he improved greatly with age, and besides, my story is set in Philadelphia and New York. I can even use actors that are no longer living. Hmmmm. Paul Newman - or Shelly Winters - might fit into my story.

While I was shopping for actors, I also established birthdates for most of my characters, and I started looking for incidents in the wider world that would influence the course of their lives. I found some, too.

This is the fun part, isn't it?